Nelleke Krujimer

Hi there! My name is Nelleke, and I´m a Dutchie who has been working for UKH since September 2011. I grew up in a Christian family, and went to Christian schools. Until I was a teenager, it didn´t really dawn on me that there were people out there who don´t believe. When I grew older, I realized I was surrounded by a hodgepodge of philosophies about the world, religions, cultural relativism, atheism, indifference and what have you. The funny thing was that society told me that it is okay to compile your own set of ideas from this hodgepodge, however exotic, but that believing in Jesus and in the truth of the Bible is rather backward!

Of course, I found this very confusing, and during my years at Uni I needed to critically rethink my beliefs: Do I believe that God created the world? Is

Jesus God? Was it really necessary that He died and rose again in order to forgive my sins? Is there one way to God? And while considering these questions, I had to make choices like everyone else. What kind of priorities to make, whether to take God´s word seriously as a guide for my life, or choose my own direction, what kind of career to pursue, what kind of partner to search for, etc. I realized that the choices I made would always be inextricably bound up with my convictions.

Going through the process of asking these questions, it became clearer and clearer to me that there´s nothing that I want more than spending my life believing in God, and paying Him respect with the way I live my live. Even if so many voices around me discourage me to believe in God. Why Jesus and the Bible? Nobody has ever given me a convincing alternative, whilst the God I meet in the Bible makes sense of my life, and of this wonderful and complicated world I live in. I believe that God has made us for Himself, and that our hearts are restless till they rest in Him (Augustine).

When I was a student, I went to a student group in my university city. God used this group to shape and grow my faith. I could ask questions, be challenged in my beliefs, learn from older students, think about the relationship between faith and science, learn how to communicate my faith to others, and make friends for life! I hope that you too will have a great time in the student group you´re part of!